Business & Sports are Microcosms of Life

Small Business, Attitude, and Actions

I think I can speak for most sports fans when I say; the great thing about sports is it’s a microcosm of life. There are things that you can control and things you cannot control. You can’t control bad calls by the officials or lucky bounces of the ball or puck. You can control your preparation, work ethic, and decisions you make. Ultimately you’re in control of your destiny.

As a sports fan I can’t stand it when a player, or a coach, blames a loss on a bad call by the officials. Games are long and to pin down a loss to one play, you need to assume that for the rest of the game they played flawless. It assumes the team or players have no control of the outcome and there’s no room for improvement.

Most importantly no positive action start with being a victim or from self-pity. All of this can be said for life and business too.

Your preparation, and decisions, will have more influence on outcomes than the things out of your control. You do the best you can to deal with and react to the things you can’t control. Sometimes a new competitor comes into town or your market changes in way that negatively affects your business; it’s how you deal with new situations that will determine your success or failure.

There’s a saying in football – take what the defence gives you. It means you can’t change what your opposition will do; you need to react to the reality in order to gain an advantage. No amount of wishing, hoping, nor blaming will change the situation.

Be Prepared

A team can score a goal from a lucky bounce, only if they are good enough to be in position to take advantage of the opportunity.

Understand what advantages your small business has and know what’s happening around you. Always look for new opportunities for growth. Change brings opportunity for the smart entrepreneur; be willing to change and improve your operations.